r> 


am  4 


Reprw'  id  from  Education,  November ,  1898. 


OUR  EDUCATIONAL  EXHIBIT  AT  1  HE  INTERNA¬ 
TIONAL  EXPOSITION  IN  PARIS  IN  iqoo.  * 


W.  T.  HARRIS,  LL.D..U.  S.  COMMISSIONER  OF  EDUCATION,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C- 

N  view  of  the  approaching  World’s  Fair  soon  to  be  held  in 


Paris,  commencing  April  15,  1900,  and  closing  November 
15,  of  the  same  year,  I  have  ventured  to  bring  before  the  National 


Educational  Association  the  suggestion  of  the  appointment  of  a 


general  committee  whose  duty  it  should  be  to  promote  in  all  suit¬ 


able  ways  the  preparation  of  an  exhibit  of  the  educational  condi¬ 


tion  and  progress  within  the  United  States.  Such  a  committee 
ought  to  be  a  large  one  and  formed  in  such  a  manner  as  to  repre¬ 
sent  all  educational  interests,  and  divide  easily  into  sub-commit¬ 
tees  for  special  work.  Such  a  committee  for  example  should  be 
composed  of  ten  state  superintendents,  ten  city  superintendents, 
ten  presidents  of  colleges  or  universities,  ten  representatives  of 
private  or  denominational  schools,  five  librarians  of  public  libra¬ 
ries  and  five  representatives  of  states  and  other  institutions  for 
the  education  of  special  classes  including  asylums  for  orphans, 
deaf  and  dumb,  blind,  state  reform  schools  and  the  like. 

This  would  make  up  a  committee  of  fifty  or  more  persons  who 
should  be  appointed  by  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Association 
and  be  called  together  in  November  next  to  organize  and  begin 
their  work. 

This  committee  would  be  of  great  service  to  the  commissioners 
or  other  officers  appointed  by  the  president  to  take  charge  of  the 
exhibit  of  the  United  States.  If  would  stimulate  action  in  all 
parts  of  the  country,  and  assist  all  who  seek  light  as  to  the  best 
modes  of  showing  educational  material. 

One  of  the  most  important  functions  of  the  committee  would 
be  to  appoint  a  commission  to  report  on  the  French  and  other 
educational  exhibits  as  found  in  place  at  Paris  and  to  study  their 
relation  to  the  social  and  political  ideals  fostered  by  the  several 
states  that  prepared  these  exhibits. 

Perhaps  the  most  noteworthy  movement  in  the  history  of  the 
past  twenty-five  years  is  the  rise  of  German  productive  industry 

*  Address  delivered  before  the  National  Educational  Association  meeting,  at  Wash¬ 
ington,  D.  C.,  July  8,  1808. 


2 

under  the  direct  influence  of  the  German  imperial  government. 
It  would  seem  that  the  annual  wealth  production  of  that  nation 
has  increased  within  that  period  of  a  quarter  of  a  century 
extending  from  the  epoch  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War  by  some¬ 
thing  near  forty  per  cent,  and  that  it  will  soon  be  fifty  per  cent, 
greater  than  it  was  before  the  victory  at  Sedan.  Is  the  French 
nation  fully  aware  of  this  tremendous  movement  to  enhance  Ger¬ 
man  power,  not  directly  by  military  preparation  but  by  produc¬ 
tive  industry  ?  If  so  what  are  its  methods  of  national  defence  ? 
And  what  are  the  English  and  the  Russians  and  the  Southern 
European  powers  doing  in  the  meanwhile  ?  Germany  is  the  lead¬ 
ing  country  since  the  time  of  Frederick  the  Great  in  using  the 
school  as  a  great  instrument  of  political  progress.  Prussia  was 
before  all  nations  in  directing  its  national  housekeeping  by  the 
systematic  results  of  intelligence.  Under  the  influence  of  Prus¬ 
sian  statesmen  it  is  found,  for  instance,  that  the  German  people 
do  not  consume  as  much  sugar  as  England  and  France  and  yet 
having  a  northern  climate  it  should  have  the  benefit  of  the  more 
carbon  which  sugar  furnishes.  Looking  further  it  notes  the  world 
is  depending  on  the  inhabitants  of  tropical  and  sub-tropical 
countries  for  the  supply  of  this  useful  article.  Why  should  not  a 
method  be  found  by  which  the  people  of  Saxony  and  Prussia  and 
Bavaria,  can  produce  their  own  sugar  ? 

The  Commission  not  only  asks  this  question  but  it  sets  a  series 
of  experiments  in  operation  under  the  charge  of  agricultural 
chemists  and  scientific  farmers.  The  most  available  plant  for  the 
purpose  seems  to  be  the  best,  and  bounties  are  offered  by  the 
government  to  encourage  beet-raising  and  sugar-manufacture, 
adding  a  round  sum  to  the  price  of  all  that  is  exported.  To  the 
astonishment  of  the  world  in  a  few  years  the  beet  root  sugar  of 
the  world  has  come  to  exceed  the  cane  sugar  in  the  ratio  of  nine 
to  seven.  There  were  4,500,000  tons  of  beet-root  sugar  to  3,500,- 
000  tons  of  cane  sugar. 

German  political  economy  knows  that  the  people  that  produces 
the  raw  material  is  not  the  richest  people.  To  be  the  richest 
people  it  must  become  a  great  manufacturing  people  and  also  a 
great  commercial  people.  What  are  the  higher  commercial 
schools  of  Germany  teaching  their  pupils  ;  what  are  the  schools 
of  chemistry  teaching  the  youth  that  are  to  direct  German  manu¬ 
factures  ?  It  is  not  at  all  likely  that  we  know  by  direct  inspec- 


3 


tion.  We  can,  however,  see  the  importance  of  those  schools  by 
their  results.  Could  not  a  well-appointed  commission  learn  much 
by  studying  the  Paris  Exposition  in  1900  ?  It  would  scarcely  gain 
entrance  into  the  government  schools  where  new  processes  are 
developing,  but  it  could  learn  by  outside  inquiry  separate  items 
which  can  be  pieced  together  and  made  very  suggestive. 

The  secret  methods  used  in  industrial  processes  in  Germany, 
France  or  England,  can  be  learned  by  other  nations  and  in  fact 
soon  become  well-known  devices.  The  conceited  nations  who  are 
not  anxious  to  adopt  new  inventions  nor  to  educate  their  people 
in  directive  power  soon  find  themselves  lagging  behind  in  power 
of  national  defence.  There  never  was  an  educative  lesson  taken 
more  to  heart  than  that  of  Koniggrats  except  the  similar  and 
greater  one  of  Sedan. 

The  great  advantage  of  studying  education  at  an  international 
exposition  is  found  chiefly  in  its  bringing  together  the  educational 
side  by  side  with  the  industrial  exhibit. 

The  most  advanced  civilization  of  our  day  has  entered  what 
may  be  designated  as  a  third  epoch  of  industrial  history.  The 
first  epoch  is  one  wherein  little  or  no  division  of  labor  exists,  and 
wherein  most  of  the  combination  is  in  the  interest  of  the  protec¬ 
tion  of  life  and  means  of  subsistence  from  the  foes  of  the  state. 
In  the  imperfect  political  forms  existing,  the  citizen  cannot  devote 
his  best  energies  to  productive  industry  —  the  best  talent  must  be 
devoted  to  the  state  in  its  military  aspect,  and  the  consequence 
is  that  slaves  and  women  are  compelled  to  attend  to  the  indus¬ 
tries  and  to  provide  food,  clothing  and  shelter  for  the  necessities 
of  life.  Under  such  circumstances  division  of  labor  and  combina¬ 
tion  is  not  possible  |to  its  full  extent.  When  the  state  becomes 
settled  and  its  limits  have  extended  so  as  to  include  under  one 
government  the  many  smaller  tribes  and  principalities  that  were 
never  able  to  live  in  peace  when  independent,  but  were  forever 
entering  as  factors  into  a  process  of  mutual  hostility  — then  set¬ 
tled  peace  comes,  and  division  of  labor  is  possible  where  produc¬ 
tive  industry  becomes  recognized  as  a  function  of  free  men.  The 
second  epoch  of  industry  is  this  one  of  division  of  labor  as  the 
supreme  principle.  “Divide  and  conquer”  is  its  motto.  It  limits 
the  training  of  the  laborer  to  a  single  simple  function  or  activity 
so  as  to  secure  thereby  the  greatest  possible  skill  and  rapidity  of 
production.  Such  concentration  of  individual  energy  upon  the 


4 


parts  of  a  process  is  possible  only  where  combination  can  be  easily 
effected  between  the  different  kinds  of  workmen  and  thus  the 
finished  product  turned  out  by  the  association  working  as  a  single 
individual.  This  second  phase  of  industry  is  not  accompanied 
with  the  corresponding  enlightenment  of  the  individual  laborer. 
It  aims  at  infinite  specialization ;  at  concentrating  the  entire 
energy  of  the  laborer  upon  the  simple  movement  of  the  body,  and 
thus  reduces  the  human  being  to  a  machine  and  tends  to  narrow 
his  intellect  correspondingly. 

But  out  of  the  second  class  of  industry,  by  a  sort  of  dialectic 
necessity,  proceeds  the  third.  The  ultimate  tendency  of  the  divi¬ 
sion  of  labor  is  to  sub-divide  each  process  for  the  sake  of  acquir¬ 
ing  skill,  until  a  maximum  of  simplicity  is  reached.  It  is  here 
that  the  aid  of  machinery  comes  in.  The  simpler  the  movement 
the  easier  it  is  to  find  a  mechanical  process  that  can  be  substituted 
for  that  of*the  human  hand.  When  a  number  of  simple  mechan¬ 
ical  processes  are  discovered,  the  directing  mind  of  labor  begins 
to  invent  combinations  of  machinery,  and  with  this  enters  the 
third  epoch  of  industry.  Machinery  continually  grows  more  com¬ 
plex  in  this  epoch,  and  tends  continually  to  invade  the  province 
of  the  mere  hand-laborer,  and  to  render  [him  useless  by  providing 
cheaper  and  more  certain  means  of  accomplishing  his  work. 

To  the  narrow,  simple  mind  of  the  mere  hand-laborer,  the 
avatar  of  machinery  appears  as  a  direful  portent, —  all-destructive 
of  his  meansfof  subsistence  #nd  of  his  very  raison  d'etre.  But  the 
Divine  Providence  uses  machinery  as  the  instrument  of  individ¬ 
ual  freedom.  The  appliance  is  two-fold  :  — 

1.  The  first  effect  of  machinery  is  to  increase  very  largely  the 
productivity  of  the  individual,  and  to  cheapen  the  products  of 
industry.  Thus,  when  things  are  re-adjusted,  the  former  hand- 
laborer  finds  himself  producing  more,  and  able  to  purchase  his 
private  supply  with  less  money.  The  social  whole  gets  better 
fed,  sheltered  and  clothed,  with  less  labor  than  formerly,  and  has 
therefore  surplus  time  to  produce  ornament  and  to  educate  itself. 

2.  The  second  effect  of  machinery  is  to  elevate  the  laborer  by 
demanding  of  him  a  higher  quality  of  labor.  Mere  hand-labor 
required  the  minimum  of  brain  effort.  But  when  man  is  set  to 
directing  machinery,  he  becomes  less  a  hand-laborer  and  more  a 
brain-laborer.  He  must  understand  the  combination  of  move¬ 
ments  in  his  machine,  and  must  exercise  watchfulness  and  fore- 


5 


The  epoch  of  machinery  continually  tends  toward  the 
production  of  more  and  more  complex  machines,  combining  many 
formerly  separate  trades  in  one  machine,  and  as  a  consequence, 
requiring  of  the  director  of  the  machine  greater  power  of  combi¬ 
nation.  Each  laborer  now  comes  to  stand  where  the  overseer  or 
supervisor  stood  before.  The  tendency  of  machinery  is  therefore 
to  remove  the  laborer  as  far  as  possible  from  mere  hand-work,  and 
to  demand  of  him  alertness  of  mind,  and  versatility  —  exactly 
opposite  traits  of  mind  from  those  produced  by  mere  division  of 
labor.  Mere  brute  force  being  in  abeyance,  it  is  noticeable  that 
woman  becomes  more  equal  to  man  in  the  third  epoch  of  industry, 
and  a  sharer  with  him  in  all  forms  of  labor. 

Whereas  the  principle  of  mere  division  of  labor  tended  toward 
the  complete  reduction  of  him  to  a  hand  or  foot  —  a  brute  force 
—  and  demanded  of  him  the  minimum  of  brains,  and  therefore 
did  not  stimulate  or  encourage  school  education,  the  new  princi¬ 
ple  of  labor-saving  machinery  makes  a  direct  demand  for  directive 
intellect,  and  therefore  encourages  education  as  a  means  to  secure 
it.  The  type  of  this ‘highest  phase  of  human  industry  may  be 
studied  in  the  Springfield  arsenal,  in  the  Waltham  watch  manu¬ 
factory,  in  the  latest  machines  for  printing  newspapers,  manufac¬ 
turing  pins,  weaving  ribbons  and  carpets,  etc.  This  form  of 
industry  requires  general  intelligence  in  the  workman  as  an  in¬ 
dispensable  basis,  and  the  school  education  which  is  thus  rendered 
necessary  re-acts  again  upon  the  industry,  making  new  and  subtler 
combinations  of  machinery,  and  continually  emancipating  the 
laborer  from  drudgery. 

If,  in  the  state  of  barbarism,  only  one  in  a  thousand  can  be 
spared  for  the  work  of  ornament,  in  the  stage  of  the  division  of 
labor  at  least  one  in  a  hundred  can  be  reserved  for  the  production 
of  the  beautiful,  and  in  the  epoch  of  machinery  the  number 
devoted  to  art  and  culture  increases  one  in  ten,  and,  prospectively, 
beyond  that. 

From  these  considerations  it  is  obvious  how  pertinent  will  be 
the  studies  of  our  teachers  upon  the  products  of  machinery  in  the 
world  exposition  as  directly  related  to  the  progress  of  school  edu¬ 
cation. 

Wherever  there  is  evidence  of  versatility  of  skill  in  the  indi¬ 
vidual  workman,  or  evidence  of  high  directive  power,  there  is 
evidence  of  school  education  or  its  equivalent. 


6 


This  correlation  of  productive  industry  with  education  hasb^^( 
recognized  in  World’s  Fairs.  In  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1855, 
therewas  a  sub-division  devoted  to  primary  education,  and  again 
in  that  of  London  of  1862,  the  class  “education”  appeared  in  the 
schedule.  The  primary  schools  of  France  made  a  show  in  the 
exhibition  at  Paris  in  1867.  At  Vienna,  in  1873,  we  all  became 
interested  in  the  educational  department,  and  prepared  to  do  a 
much  greater  work  in  our  own  International  Fair,  the  then 
approaching  centennial  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  our  nation. 

In  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1889,  education  in  France  received  a 
wonderful  illumination.  Its  thoroughness  and  its  penetration  to 
all  classes  of  society  was  demonstrated.  The  fact  that  the  United 
States  had  only  a  small  rudimentary  exhibit  there  was  a  source  of 
regret  then  and  since,  not  only  on  the  part  of  Americans,  but 
also  on  the  part  of  France  and  other  nations,  as  was  shown  by 
their  oft-repeated  comments.  In  the  Columbian  Exposition,  so 
fresh  in  our  memory,  education  occupied  a  much  larger  space 
than  in  any  of  the  Fairs  that  had  preceded  it,  and  the  grand 
impression  it  made  is  still  fresh  in  our  minds. 

The  French,  it  is  well  known,  are  eminent  for  their  ability  to 
make  an  exhibit  tell  its  own  story.  As  JEsop  taught  the  animals 
to  speak  like  rational  beings,  so  the  French  have  taught  the  art  of 
arranging  tilings  in  such  a  way  as  make  them  talk.  Hence  it  has 
happened  that  more  useful  hints  are  to’be  derived  from  a  French 
educational  exhibit  than  from  any  other  as  regards  the  illustration 
by  means  of  object  lessons. 

The  American  method  of  instruction  has  not  been  that  of  object 
lessons.  It  has  leaned  rather  to  the  side  known  as  the  text-book 
method.  But  educational  methods  are  gradually  undergoing 
revolution  all  over  the  country  so  far  as  instruction  is  concerned, 
so  as  to  adopt  the  “  method  of  investigation  ”  in  place  of  the  old 
method,  which  it  speaks  contemptuously  of  as  the  “  cramming 
text-books  method.”  The  new  method  is  all-worthy  of  adoption  ; 
but  the  old  is,  perhaps,  not  sufficiently  valued.  Hence,  we  have 
extremes  and  unnecessary  one-sidedness  in  the  newest  devotees 
of  the  method  of  investigation.  The  tendency  is,  of  course,  to 
neglect  the  printed  page  and  the  critical  comparison  of  authori¬ 
ties,  and  to  confine  teaching  too  much  to  individual  experiment 
and  original  investigation.  It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  the 
school  has  its  chief  work  in  initiating  the  pupil  into  the  accumu- 


7 


BIRa  wisdom  of  the  race  as  a  preliminary  to  his  original  additions 
to  the  same.  Unless  he  knows  what  has  been  thought,  observed, 
and  done,  he  runs  the  risk  of  travelling  round  in  a  narrow  circle 
of  his  own,  and  wasting  his  life  in  repeating  discoveries  long  since 
made.  Hence  in  early  life,  there  predominates  the  assimilating 
stage  of  education  in  maturer  life,  the  stage  of  original  acquisi¬ 
tion  . 

And  yet,  even  in  this  characterization  of  the  difference  between 
the  school  and  practical  life,  we  are  apt  to  underrate  the  assimi¬ 
lative  stage.  For  inasmuch  as  all  human  life  is  vicarious  and  all 
mankind  are  made  by  means  of  spoken  and  printed  language  to 
live  for  each  individual  —  so  that  each  individual  is  able  through 
language  to  participate  spiritually  in  the  experience  of  the  race 
without  being  obliged  to  suffer  the  terrible  throes  —  the  agony 
and  sweat  of  blood  —  that  that  experience  has  cost  in  the  aggre¬ 
gate  —  it  follows  that  the  greater  part  of  life  is  after  all  the  par¬ 
ticipation  in  the  life  of  the  race  and  its  assimilation  rather  than 
exclusively  original.  The  race  transcends  the  individual  almost 
in  an  infinite  potency.  What  are  the  senses  of  one  scientific  man 
to  the  aggregate  senses  of  all  scientific  men?  What  is  the  think¬ 
ing  of  one  philosopher  to  the  thinking  of  all  philosophers  ?  The 
physical  labor  of  one  man  is  insignificant  compared  with  that  of 
his  community;  still  less  potent  is  the  unaided  might  of  the  indi¬ 
vidual  thinker, —  experimenter  or  literary  man.  Genius  is  the 
ascent  of  the  individual  into  the  vision  and  will-power  of  the  race 
—  so  that  he  is  guided  by  the  universality  of  mankind,  and  is  fit 
guide  for  others.  Without  this  participation  in  the  common  mind 
and  experience  of  the  race,  the  individual  cannot  achieve  anything 
except  erratic  and  negative  endeavors.  He  conspires  against 
humanity.  He  mistakes  idiosyncrasy  for  originality,  and  his  life 
is  a  profitless  attempt  to  dispense  with  sunlight  and  to  see  the 
world  by  the  shine  of  his  own  eyes.  The  outcome  of  such  seeing 
is  hallucination  and  the  specter-world. 

For  these  reasons  we  must  take  care  not  to  undervalue  the  old 
pedagogic  method  of  critical  sifting  of  the  text-book  lessons  as  an 
initiation  of  the  pupil  into  the  method  of  availing  himself  of  the 
experience  of  mankind.  Its  compass  did  not  include  ail,  but,  if  a 
choice  must  be  made,  it  included  what  should  be  first  chosen. 

The  study  of  a  nation’s  text-books  is  for  these  reasons  of  im¬ 
portance  and  every  educational  exhibit  ought  to  have  such  books 
fully  represented. 


8 


It  has  been  felt  from  the  beginning  that  it  would  be  impossii^ 
to  show  up  the  products  of  education  as  the  products  of  the  farm 
and  work-shop  are  presented.  Education  produces  cultured 
human  beings,  and  these  cannot  be  placed  on  exhibition  like 
grain  or  cloth.  Neither  can  the  methods  of  education  be  shown 
to  advantage,  except  in  the  school-room.  Only  the  physical 
appliances  can  be  well  shown.  These  are  the  buildings,  furni¬ 
ture,  apparatus  and  books.  These  appliances  do  not  have  so 
direct  a  relation  to  their  product  as  the  plow  and  the  reaper  do 
to  the  grain  or  the  spinning-jenny  and  the  loom  do  to  the  cloth. 
But  as  buildings  and  furniture  have  a  very  serious  influence  for 
weal  or  woe  on  the  health  of  children,  these,  at  least,  are  of  value 
as  items  of  exhibit. 

In  the  first  attempts  to  exhibit  the  results  of  education  in  a 
World’s  Fair,  the  teacher  naturally  resorted  to  the  use  of  exami¬ 
nation  papers  and  the  work  of  classes  and  grades  on  prepared 
questions  was  bound  into  volumes,  but  without  exciting  that 
degree  of  interest  and  inquiry  that  had  been  expected.  It  required 
too  much  time  to  examine  them. 

It  is  almost  incompatible  with  the  idea  of  an  Exposition,  to 
present  its  material  in  the  form  of  books,  and  to  require  a  minute 
and  careful  examination  in  order  to  form  a  comparative  estimate 
of  its  value.  It  is  true  that  a  special  commission  sent  to  report 
on  education,  might,  in  the  course  of  the  summer,  go  through, 
with  some  degree  of  attention,  the  thousands  of  volumes  of  pupils’ 
work  presented  at  such  an  Exposition,  and  report  the  relative 
merits.  The  most  profitable  investigation  would  still  remain  to 
the  commission  ;  it  should  proceed  to  visit  the  localities  that  sent 
the  best  work,  and  study  the  methods  of  instruction  there  prac¬ 
ticed.  For  it  is  not  the  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  this  or  that 
place  excels  in  its  work,  which  is  of  value,  but  the  knowledge  of 
the  method  of  its  accomplishment. 

It  has  happened,  therefore,  that  the  exhibit  of  education  has 
drifted  more  and  more  towards  what  can  be  presented  in  a  graphic 
form. 

Instruction  in  penmanship,  drawing  and  map-making  can  be 
best  shown. 

The  photograph  has  come  more  and  more  into  requisition.  It 
may  show  the  school  architecture  at  a  glance  and  also  the  per- 
sonelle  of  teachers  and  pupils.  Photographs  of  interiors  may 


show  the  furniture  and  apparatus.  An  exhibition  of  photographs 
showing  every  school  building  in  the  State  with  its  pupils  and 
teachers  in  front  of  the  building  would,  be  the  most  unique  attrac¬ 
tion  ever  presented  at  an  International  Exposition.  For  it  would 
show  the  countenance,  stature,  costume  of  pupils  and  teachers, 
the  degree  of  importance  which  the  community  placed  upon  the 
school  by  its  costliness  and  its  improvements. 

After  the  photograph  comes  the  large  chart  showing  items  of 
comparative  population,  school  attendance,  number  of  teachers, 
length  of  annual  session,  finances  as  regards  state  aid  and  local 
taxes. 

We  all  remember  the  remarkable  series  of  charts  showing  the 
statistics  of  Harvard  Gollege  and  its  history,  at  the  Columbian 
Exposition.  They  are  reproduced  in  General  Eaton’s  Report  of 
that  Exposition  printed  by  the  Bureau  of  Education  in  the  Annual 
Report  for  1892-’93.  What  a  valuable  exhibit  of  higher  educa¬ 
tion  could  be  made  with  similar  charts  of  each  college  and  uni¬ 
versity  in  the  United  States. 

When  we  consider  the  object  of  school  education  in  the  school 
we  are  not  surprised  at  the  amount  of  room  given  to  new  and 
often  slight  departures  from  the  current  traditions  of  education. 
A  new  system  of  map  drawing,  or  a  new  object  lesson  will  receive 
more  attention  than  a  large  display  of  solid  work  in  the  regular 
lines. 

And  yet  this  is  not  so  strange  when  we  compare  this  with  the 
history  of  school  methods.  For  a  fact  that  strikes  us  as  a  great 
paradox  when  we  look  over  the  history  of  education  is  that  nearly 
all  of  the  reforms  in  pedagogy  have  come  from  radical,  negative 
men  —  men  who  were  idiosyncratic,  and  who  departed  from  the 
beaten  paths  of  society  to  such  a  degree  as  to  amount  to  a  deform¬ 
ity.  Such  were  Pestalozzi,  Basedow,  Jacotot,  and  a  host  of 
reformers  that  emanated  from  the  school  of  Rousseau.  Although 
the  work  of  the  teacher  would  seem  to  be  that  of  initiating  the 
pupil  into  the  conventionalities  of  civilized  life,  the  school  of 
Rousseau  theoretically  taught  that  the  end  of  education  is  to  restore 
the  child  to  nature.  The  grain  of  truth  in  this  spirit  of  protest 
against  the  forms  and  prescriptions  of  society  lies  in  this  .  Edu¬ 
cation  is  to  make  man  conscious  of  the  necessity  of  the  conven¬ 
tionalities  and  usages  which  he  is  to  wear  about  him  —  the  clothes 
as  it  were  of  his  inner  spiritual  self  —  through  life/  And  all 


consciousness  begins  with  negation.  Analysis  is  a  process  of 
tearing  to  pieces,  and  the  fabric  of  society  is  thus  torn  to  shreds 
as  preliminary  to  seeing  its  necessity  by  synthesis. 

Hence  education,  more  than  any  other  art,  lives  by  new  depar¬ 
tures.  Its  growth  resembles  a  vegetable  organism  rather  than  an 
animal  organism.  It  grows  by  the  sprouting  out  of  new  life 
upon  the  old,  and  the  old  becomes  in  this  way  the  soil  and  sup¬ 
port  of  the  new.  Each  new  branch  or  twig  or  leaf  is  a  new  indi¬ 
vidual,  rooting  in  the  old  as  its  soil.  The  animal’s  limbs  are  not 
separate  individuals,  but  in  each  one  he  is  at  home  and  at  one 
with  himself.  The  animal  is  one  organism  in  all  his  members, 
and  has  the  psychological  faculty  of  feeling,  while  the  plant  is  a 
bundle  of  individualities,  and  cannot  feel,  but  only  live. 

Education  develops  in  the  child  a  new  thought  or  trains  him  to 
do  a  new  act.  Then  by  endless  repetition  it  reduces  the  new 
activity  to  habit.  Repetition  is  essentially  deadening — the  reduc¬ 
tion  to  habit  is  the  reduction  from  a  stage  of  conscious  spontaneity 
to  a  state  of  unconscious,  involuntary  activity.  And  yet  all 
spiritual  life  depends  upon  this  conversion  of  spontaneity  into 
use  and  want.  But  the  process  of  converting  a  free  activity,  a 
new  thought,  into  an  unconscious  habit  is,  after  all,  the  process  of 
freeing  the  will  and  the  intellect  from  its  concentration  on  a  lower 
activity,  in  order  that  it  may  energize  anew  upon  a  larger  syn¬ 
thesis.  Without  habit  it  can  make  no  progress. 

O’er  its  dead  self  it  steps  onward  and  upward  to  higher  things, 
says  a  poet. 

But  the  work  of  the  teacher  is  in  perpetual  danger  from  this 
source.  It  treads  always  upon  the  brink  of  the  abyss  of  dull 
routine  and  mechanical,  soulless,  unconscious  repetition.  Hence 
the  necessity  for,  and  the  actual  occurrence  of,  negative  and  one¬ 
sided  reforms  for  the  sake  of  relief  from  the  soul-killing  monot¬ 
ony.  The  circle  of  pedagogical  change  and  reform  ever  revolves. 
Its  general  movements  are  :  — 

(a)  From  teaching  the  entire  complexity  of  a  thing  to  teach¬ 
ing  its  simplest  elements,  i.  e.,  from  exhaustive  treatment  to  that 
of  smattering. 

(b)  From  beginning  with  the  elements  of  a  thing  to  begin¬ 
ning  with  its  final  results. 

(c)  From  concentration  on  the  intellectual  technics  to  con¬ 
centrating  upon  the  practical. 


11 


(d)  From  emphasizing  the  humanities  and  hastening  the  initia¬ 
tion  of  the  child  into  all  human  combinations  and  into  conscious 
communion  with  the  spiritual  life  of  mankind,  to  emphasize  the 
natural  sciences  and  mathematics  and  hastening  the  initiation  into 
mechanic  art  and  the  means  of  combination  of  material  objects. 

(e)  From  a  striving  to  give  a  clear  consciousness  of  every 
step  taught,  at  once,  to  a  blind  obedience  to  prescription,  —  learn¬ 
ing  formulas  with  only  a  practical  end  in  view. 

But  let  us  return  from  these  considerations  of  the  detail  of  an 
educational  exhibit  and  take  up  once  more  our  chief  reason  for 
making  elaborate  preparation  for  this  Paris  Exposition. 

Our  interest  in  the  Exposition  in  Paris  and  in  all  subsequent 
World  Expositions  in  Europe  is  not  the  same  interest  that  it  was 
in  1889.  Since  then  we  have  risen  out  of  our  isolation  and  the 
Monroe  doctrine,  and  have  taken  our  first  step  to  become  one  of 
the  number  of  great  powers  that  assume  to  direct  the  course  of 
civilization  and  decide  for  the  rest  of  the  world  its  destiny.  We 
shall  probably  count  our  seventy-five  millions  of  people  by  1900 
the  time  of  the  Paris  Exposition.  Considering  our  wealth-pro¬ 
ducing  power  and  the  enrollment  in  our  schools  we  may  easily 
claim  to  be  the  most  powerful  nation  in  the  world.  That  is  to 
say  we  may  claim  to  have  the  strength  on  the  whole  though  we 
are  not  using  it  to  form  great  armies  or  navies.  We  are  using  it 
chiefly  in  productive  industry.  Our  claims  will  be  recognized  by 
the  united  powers  of  Europe  and  we  shall  be  allowed  our  place  in 
their  councils.  But  we  never  can  avail  ourselves  of  the  advant¬ 
age  unless  we  as  a  nation  become  familiar  with  the  political  aims 
and  aspirations  of  the  several  nations  constituent  in  that  great 
unity.  We  must  know  thoroughly  their  history  and  their  present 
purposes  —  not  only  the  conscious  purposes  of  their  governments 
but  especially  the  more  or  less  unconscious  purposes  in  the  popu¬ 
lar  instinct.  For  we  must  learn  to  interpret  the  words  of  rulers 
through  their  actions  and  their  actions  through  their  convictions. 

To  learn  to  understand  the  wishes  of  other  nations  and  the 
means  by  which  they  make  them  valid  is  the  first  lesson  of  diplo¬ 
macy.  And  we  as  a  nation  are  now  fairly  launched  upon  the 
era  in  which  diplomacy  will  become  more  and  more  necessary  to 
our  success  in  obtaining  the  consideration  that  is  due  us. 

World  Expositions  are  the  grand  object  lessons  in  which  our 
people  may  best  begin  this  study  of  our  great  contemporaries  the 
nations  of  Europe. 


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